Meeting the Midwest

There's nothing like a trip to the midwest to release stress. I made it in to Chicago an hour late, but excited about my first visit to the windy city (the countless airport layovers don't count). Deepak tried to pick me up, but got stuck in traffic. It was a good lesson in avoiding the Dan Ryan. We headed straight back to Deepak's new place in South Bend, IN (a 1.5-2 hour drive) to crash since I was still recovering and we knew we'd be back in Chicago soon. Here's a brief overview of my first weekend:

Friday - arrive 4pm, nibble on Panera, drive to South Bend, rest
Saturday - rest, walk around Notre Dame campus, try to eat spaghetti, rest
Sunday - rest, train to Chicago, explore Millenium park with Deepak's friends, nibble on Thai food, rest
Monday - visit University of Chicago, nibble on deep dish pizza, visit Northwestern (after a mix-up and train trek to Evanston), train back to South Bend

Things I learned:
1. There's little sadder than not having much appetite for good food
2. Rest is the best medicine
3. University of Chicago has a beautiful campus and 2-year-old b-school. Although I'm not sure the school's culture and focuses are for me, I am tempted to put GSB on my list.
4. Despite all of my research and positive first impressions of the school, something didn't feel right on Northwestern's campus. I'm taking it off my list.

Icky

I feel really gross, but hopefully a week's vacation will do me well. This can't help me grad school efforts. Here's where I'm at:

- Resume done to satisfaction for interviews. I'll probably obsess over it again in a few weeks.
- Visit planned for U Chicago and Northwestern on Monday
- Interview with Admissions Director at Notre Dame on Wednesday
- Meeting with Admissions staff at Michigan on Friday
- Stanford and Northwestern essays are out, so I've read them at least and am starting to think up answers. If all schools have 6 essays, I may have to narrow down my list even more.

Here's the current short list:
Northwestern
Michigan
Berkeley
UMD

probably: Stanford, just trying to figure out what my chances are

Still unsure about: UNC, Dartmouth, Notre Dame and another 5 schools still kinda on my list.

Resolutions

The hardest part of narrowing down is getting to the last 5 from the last 10 schools. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for schools to release their 2007 applications. There are some crazy people out there on the business week b-school forums, but mostly they're really intensely focused on the top tier b-schools. Not really sure where I fit in or how much I should think about reach-target-safety balance. For now, I guess I'll start on the northwestern essays (3 + 3 short answers).

This is going to be a painful process, I can feel it. On the plus side, I guess this is a good chance to do some introspection and freestyle writing. New resolution: write a bit at least once a week (nightly if possible) to get the creative juices flowing again.

ps. T-3.5 days til temporary freedom and my first visit to Chicago, IN and MI. Stay tuned for fun posts about my midwestern tour.

Thoughts, anyone?

I am just becoming acquainted with the wonderful world of MBA bloggers, but thought I would ask my reading public for advice first (I'm just a spectator in the league for now). Here is what I'd like to know:

1. Should I apply to Stanford (a reach, but still a dream) or devote those resources ($ for application fee and time on essays) to another school I'm more likely to get into?

2. Any thoughts on the following schools? I don't know enough about them to know whether to consider them or not:
- Tuck School at Dartmouth
- Indiana U
- Ohio State

3. Any advice on what to look for and consider when picking schools? There's always the usual (cost, location, specialization, etc.), but are there any less conventional considerations I should keep an eye out for on my visits and interviews?

4. Know anybody at any of my target schools that I could talk to? (see the complete list in a previous post). Any help is much appreciated.

5. Know of any b-school scholarships I might be eligible for?

Lost in Provincia

A colleague, Adam and I set out today for the small town of Cuapiaxtla to meet one of our venture teams for a focus group and, after a 3 hour bus ride through beautiful countriside, we ended up at the casa de cultura in the center of town, just as we were instructed.

As we discovered 2 hours later (still waiting for them to show), we weren't told that we were supposed to go to Cuapiaxtla in the state of Puebla (full name Cuapiaxtla de Madero) instead of Cuapiaxtla in the neighboring state of Tlaxcala. We were waiting in the casa de cultura in the center of Cuapiaxtla while the venturers were doing the same, only a state apart. Both are about 3 hours away from Mexico City, just in different directions.

It was a nice day trip, but kind of a bummer. Sigh. I guess these things happen to the best of us.

Happy Smiley People

It's about time I show you some of the people I keep mentioning. Here goes:
Rodrigo and Sagrario
Armando, Kimberley, Leonardo, Soledad and Kayam






Tiani and Yadira




Alex and Kayam

Lapsing workaholic

It has been an intense few weeks, but this last one will take a while to recover from. I spent a week in Monterrey with Sagrario and Rodrigo (my consulting team) participating in a week-long seminar for young leaders across Mexico and finishing our strategic plan for Avancemos. Lots of ups and downs, 12-14 hour days and strong emotions, but we learned a lot about how we work as a team and who we want to work with. Needless to say, we're all fried and I'm not looking forward to going back to work in the morning, but I also have a new list of to-dos that will take me 24 hours a day for the next year.

On the plus side, there's only 2 weeks until I go to South Bend, IN to visit Deepak and get started on my b-school visits: Notre Dame, Michigan and Northwestern. Now I just have to figure out what criteria I have and make some time to relax. Wish me luck.

Phew

I am officially done with the GMAT. Until schools release their applications for next fall, I have some time for r&r (research and rehabilitation) until application crunch-time. Here are my top 10 at the moment (in order of preference):

U. Michigan
Stanford
Northwestern
Berkeley
UNC
UMD
Notre Dame
UVA
U. Washington
Yale
and, for good luck...
Indiana

Please let me know what you think so I can narrow these down to the 5 I'll apply to. In the meantime I'll be saving up money for application fees and tuition and warming up for application essays.